Who would have thought that Capt Yusof would follow suit while his mother’s grave is still wet. His departure is a big shock to his family members and many of us, but Allah loves him more.

May his soul rest in peace.. Al Fatihah.

MACC, first, enthusiastically sprang into action on Selangor’s Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim over the maintenance of his personal car and the distribution of cows to mosques at his Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary constituency which immediately earned its reputation as Malaysian Anti Cow and Cars.

MACC claimed it has solid evidence on the purported scandal by Khalid Ibrahim but until today, nothing is done to prosecute Khalid Ibrahim.

The latest MACC’s investigation into Selangor State Government’s Exco on the use of state funds in their respective constituencies is another example of MACC’s 1Malaysia-Opposition anti-corruption body. This time, luck is not on MACC’s side when Teo Beng Hock was found dead within MACC building’s vicinity. The opposition now demanded an explanation from MACC but many doubt a satisfactory one will be offered.

On the contrary, MACC had not shown any satisfactory progress on its investigation on PKFZ scandal, the details of which had been comprehensively backed by audit investigations done by PwC. The MACC also failed to prove its independence when it comes to Khir Toyo. Property scandals implicating Khir Toyo not only involves questionable purchase of apartment units in Saudi Arabia that was riddled with discrepancies, but also Khir Toyo’s ownership of a mansion in Shah Alam that is well beyond his means even when he was a Menteri Besar.

What was MACC’s action against Khir Toyo? No one can see any…. maybe MACC is investigating quietly behind the scene?

The people of Manek Urai will also decide if they want a fish monger or a Kesedar project monitoring division manager as their representative in the Kelantan State Assembly.

Good luck to Manek Urai folks! Vote wisely!

Image credit: Laman Blog PRK Manek Urai

Redbox will initially operate within Malaysia but will eventually expand into other AirAsia destinations in Australia, Britain, China, India and Southeast Asia.

AirAsia is partnering with Mail Boxes Etc for collection points of packages, and DMSBT to enable internet service to track individual shipments. Transport firm DHL will convey cargo to and from the airport.

While AirAsia was, and still to a certain extent, synonymous with flight delays, I wonder how this low-cost courier Redbox will shape itself in the face of competitive courier services.

Good luck to Tony Fernandes and Redbox. Now, everyone can courier.

Image credit: Redbox

But Mahathir persisted and and it didn’t take long for the policy to be pushed through. For that, this is what Muhyiddin has to say:

“It was quite sudden when the PPSMI was introduced previously,” he said.

Source: Star Online

Everyone knew it was going to be a disaster but the government didn’t listen to all the concerns. The book publishers were of course the ones who smiled all the way to the bank.

Six years later, the bomb exploded right in our faces. Teaching Science and Mathematics in English failed miserably. Although the move for PPMSI was started by Mahathir’s administration, it is Najib’s administration who had to face the consequences, but that is too bad. Najib and Muhyiddin were also, after all, part of the story.

The saddest thing is that it is the students and the parents who suffered the most. I am not sure if the teachers suffered as much but the fact that all of the teachers, with only a few of them were proficient to teach the two subjects in English, went along with the decision without staging any credible fight through the teachers union was very frustrating indeed.

Muhyiddin was also reported to have said,

“He stressed that the reason for the reversal in policy was due to objective considerations and not political ones.”

Source: Star Online

but that is obviously a full load of bulls***.

To add salt to injury, Muhyiddin was also reported by Malaysiakini to have said that Mahathir had accepted the decision :

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said that former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has accepted the government’s decision to scrap his policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English.

Source: Malaysiakini

But the funny thing is, Mahathir is not happy at all.

Last but not least, Muhyiddin also admitted in the same Malaysiakini report:

Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, said he had consulted the former premier before making the crucial decision to revert to the Malay language to teach the two subjects effective 2012.

Now, who is actually running the BN Government?

It is interesting to note that in this by-election, the biography of the two candidates are so different.

Tuan Aziz was a former graduate of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and had served as Kesedar Project Monitoring Division Manager while Mohd Fauzi is just a humble fish wholesaler with no education background to shout about.

Made up of 99% rural Malays from 12,300 registered voters, Manek Urai is seen as a battle for the Malay heartland which will be a crucial test of credibility for both parties.

For photos of Manek Urai nomination day, read Kickdefella’s Nomination Day on Telephoto

Image credit: Malaysiakini

MIDE, the largest dive show in Malaysia, is endorsed and supported by Tourism Malaysia, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL), Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Eraman Duty Free, Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM), National Art Gallery Malaysia, Maritime Malaysia, Sabah Tourism Board, Malaysian Amateur Radio Emergency Services (MARES) and Tioman Mega Dive.

Admission to the expo is free, so why not bring your family to explore what MIDE 2009 has to offer this weekend.

Click here for location map.

Image credit: MIDE

When Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir took his office in February, he was reported as saying that BN would continue the people-friendly policies implemented during Pakatan’s 10-month rule.

However, this turned out to be a broken promise as about nine people-friendly policies have either been scrapped or put on the back-burner.

• 3,000 applications from residents of new and planned villages to convert their land titles from leasehold to freehold cancelled.
• 817 elected village headmen had their term of office terminated. The village chiefs have since filed a suit in the Ipoh High Court to be reinstated.
• The proposal to change the octagon Yak Tack Seng market along Jalan Osbone into a tourist centre scrapped.
• The uniform one-coupon parking system for vehicles, and at a discounted rate from April, for the whole state did not see daylight.
• The proposed RM38 million new bus terminal at Meru Raya in Jelapang grounded.
• The open-tender policy for approving government contracts, land and logging concessions reverted to the old system of closed tenders.
• The giving state land to religious schools and Chinese independent schools also scrapped.
• The policy of giving RM1,000 to the dependents of senior citizens who die too has been buried.
• The process of legalising the 134 new villages put on hold.

Source: Malaysiakini

The people of Perak will surely revolt in the next whatever election. In the mean time, maybe Manek Urai folks wants to convey their displeasure towards the BN in the up coming Manek Urai by-election?

Thanks to my blogger friend Pak Zawi, who blogs at Life As I See It, I got this interesting piece of news about my home state Kelantan.

The Kelantan State Government had launched Kelantan Gateway, a state’s official Tourism, Culture and Heritage Magazine. The magazine was launched on 3rd June 2009 by none other than Kelantan Chief Minister Tuan Guru Hj Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat who was accompanied by two State Executive Councillors, YB. Dato’ Takiyuddin Hassan and YB. Dato’ Mohd Amar.

Image credit: Pak Zawi

The launching ceremony was done at Hoover Restoran in the town center of Kota Bharu. This restaurant is very popular for its Nasi Padang dishes and if you happened to be in Kota Bharu, you should not miss to have lunch at this unique restaurant when it comes to how your bill is calculated.

Instead of using a calculator or a piece of paper to add the figures all up, the cashier will visit your table and do the calculation verbally…. very interesting and unique. The food there is nice too.

Read more at Sheih Kickdefella and LAISI.
You can download the soft copy of the colorful magazine at the Kelantan Tourist Information Centre website or click here.
Hoover Restaurant can be contacted at +609-7481439.

Malaysian budget airline AirAsia on Wednesday abolished administrative fees on all its flights in a move to reduce fares and bolster sales amid the global slowdown.

AirAsia Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said scrapping the fee creates further savings for passengers as they will now pay only the fare and airport tax.

AirAsia removed fuel surcharges in November last year.

The fee ranged from 22.5 ringgit ($6.40) to a maximum of around 43 ringgit per ticket and removing it will cost the airline 400 million ringgit ($113 million) a year.

Source: Star Online